This week, students in the St. Vrain Valley School District got to learn about the majesty of space from someone who has seen it firsthand.
Former astronaut Duane “Digger” Carey is seen during a presentation at the Innovation Center of St. Vrain Valley Schools on Tuesday. (Joel Solis/Staff Photographer)
On Tuesday, the Innovation Center of St. Vrain Valley Schools hosted former NASA astronaut Duane “Digger” Carey, who traveled to space to service the Hubble Space Telescope in March 2002. Carey spent an hour at the Longmont facility discussing his upbringing, time in the United States Air Force service and experiences in outer space. Students from Erie High School came to the talk in person, and others could watch a livestream of the presentation.
Carey’s visit was coordinated by Space Foundation, a nonprofit based in Colorado Springs that offers educational programs to future space professionals. The Innovation Center’s drone performance team has put on shows for the foundation’s Space Symposium event.
Innovation Outreach Facilitator Lynn Eckart, who works for the center, said Carey’s visit was perfectly timed with the recent Artemis II expedition.
“These are going to be the people who are taking us to the Moon and to Mars and beyond,” she said of the students in attendance. “So this is very timely.”
As the pilot of the Space Shuttle Columbia, Carey helped his fellow crew members successfully upgrade the telescope.
Less than a year after Carey’s flight, the Columbia shuttle disintegrated during re-entry after another mission.
On Tuesday, Carey showed students footage from his mission, which included spacewalks taken by the other astronauts. He pointed out equipment that was made at Ball Aerospace in Boulder.
Carey encouraged students interested in a variety of topics to consider joining the space industry. Dancers, he said, are good at spacewalks; people who like to sew, he added, can make spacesuits.
“There’s not a single skill and a single passion that any kid has that isn’t required on the space team,” Carey said. “Everything we need here on Earth, we’re going to need in space.”
Students asked Carey how he adjusted to gravity after days in space and what the “most miraculous thing” was that he saw aboard Columbia. He told them he never got tired of looking at Earth from the shuttle.
Joss Bybee, a sophomore at Skyline High School in Longmont, plans to pursue a career in aerospace engineering. Bybee, 16, said she would like to be an astronaut one day. When she learned about Carey’s presentation, she was “jumping up and down,” she said.
“I was very excited,” Bybee said.
Students listen to former astronaut Duane “Digger” Carey at the Innovation Center of St. Vrain Valley Schools on Tuesday. (Joel Solis/Staff Photographer)